This invention relates generally to bouffant type caps used by technicians, specifically medical personnel, including nurses. Even more particularly, this invention relates to apparatus for retaining eyeglasses or safety glasses in place on technicians during procedures performed by the technicians.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,115 to Braswell-Moore describes a surgeon's headpiece having an elongated, flexible eyeglass retainer member attached to a front portion of a cap of the headpiece for extending below the cap, passing about a bridge of eyeglasses, and doubling back on itself to fasten on itself. In a depicted embodiment of that patent, the eyeglass retainer member is fastened to the cap in such a manner that a proximal end portion thereof, which is attached to the interior of a front portion of the cap, is exposed at the exterior of the cap by a slit in the cap. Although it is pointed out in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,115 that the word "surgeon" includes not only surgeons but their assistants as well, it has been determined that the particular structure described therein is difficult for nurses, who normally wear bouffant type headpieces, to use. That is, nurse headpieces normally are larger and looser than doctor headpieces so as to accommodate larger hairdos. Further, such caps include elastic strands at lower edges thereof to compress the lower edges on heads of the wearers in order to prevent hair or other contaminants from escaping from the bouffant headpieces. These headpieces are also retained on wearers by these elastic strands. However, when an eyeglass retainer member of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,115 is mounted on such a bouffant headpiece, it does not get sufficient vertical support from the elastic strand for adequately retaining eyeglasses on the nose of a wearer.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a bouffant headpiece for use by medical personnel and other technicians which provides sufficient support for an elongated, flexible, eyeglass retainer member as well as for eyeglasses attached thereto.
Further, it is an object of this invention to provide a bouffant-type headpiece for medical personnel and other technicians whose front portion is fixedly held at a forehead of a wearer, above the wearer's nose, either with or without an eyeglass retainer member. Similarly, it is an object of this invention to provide such a headpiece which is loose for accommodating hairdos and yet which provides compression of a lower edge thereof for retaining loose hair and other contaminants therein.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a bouffant headpiece which is not difficult to make, can be sold relatively inexpensively, and which looks good.